"Rossianin"

[Alina Israeli]

>It is hardly a sign of "westernization" since definition of citizenship by
> "blood" or ethnicity is absolutely not exclusively "eastern" invention.

But not a western practice for quite some time. Anyone born in a given
Western country can become its citizen unless the parents choose otherwise.

> Such
> definition of citizenship is still the law of the Bundesrepublik. Does
> "German" refer to ethnic Germans or all citizens of the Bundesrepublik?

Germans have a hard time dealing with race or what they perceive as
outsiders (remember the incident of 60 years ago?). There are Black
Germans, born and raised in Germany, and most Germans upon meeting one
usually ask in a friendly way, "So when are you going home?" Germany
despite having so many immigrants doesn't let them assimilate properly,
excludes them. Many Black Germans emigrated to the US, as so many other
ethnic subgroups, always telling the stories of how they felt excluded.

Some Italians also had a hard time accepting a Black Miss Italy, but she
was Italian all right, no one argued about that.

France, in addition to the mainland, has its oversees departments
(Martinique etc.). Its inhabitants are French citizens but not ethnically
French, in a traditional sense of the word.

In Russia, the citizenship is also not quite blood or ethnicity based. Just
look at the plight of (ethnic Russian) refugees from former central Asian
Soviet republics. Russian media reports that they cannot get citizenship
rights, propiska etc. and even children spend years without attending
school in a new place (while living in some shack and acquiring a TB).

_____________
Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Mass. Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20016

phone:  (202) 885-2387
fax:    (202) 885-1076

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